It’s your first appointment at a new gym. You haven't done any form of exercise in… you don’t actually remember how long. A myriad of questions run through your mind: Who am I meeting with? What will they be like? A man? A woman? A meathead? Will they be like that High School football player I hated? How old will they be? Am I too old to workout? Maybe I’ll never get in shape again. My friend started at this gym and they love it, but what if it doesn't work for me?

You have doubts! That’s okay. The good news is you took the first step and scheduled your first appointment. Give yourself some credit.

Levels of credit range from high fives to champagne showers and caviar dreams... your call.

This article is meant to ease your anxiety. Results Driven Fitness Systems is a gym like you’ve never experienced; one of the biggest differences is that you’re never alone. There’s always a coach. There’s always another member there sharing the workout and experience with you. You’re never guessing and left to figure it out for yourself. Let us walk you through what you can expect from your first appointment at RD.

The Strategy Session:

At RD, our students begin with an initial, one-on-one appointment with a Results Coach. Why? Because it’s important for us to understand who you are. First, we want to learn about injuries, past and present, any chronic pains, and other relevant medical information. We discuss your goals: what you want to get out of this experience? Do you want to, lose weight, run a 5k or keep up with your kids, or grandkids, as you get older? We have members looking to do all of these things when they first join us. Their goals progress as they learn more about what we do, and about what it means to be strong.

After discussing injury history and goals, it’s time for measurements (Measurements!? What does that mean?). This is where we use a fancy scale to find out your muscle mass, body fat mass, and percent body fat. We do them for 2 reasons. One, we need to get a baseline to make sure what you are doing inside of the gym and, more importantly, outside of the gym, is working. Without baselines, you have no way to be sure you are on the right path. Two, a traditional scale doesn’t give you a complete picture of your body composition. Your weight is made up of all of your tissue plus water. That being said, seeing your weight go up isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Muscle could be skyrocketing but you wouldn’t know that from a traditional scale. Measurements are done on your first day in the gym and, if your goal is fat loss, at the very least once each month after that.

After a brief breakdown of your measurements and an overview of some information packets, it's on to the movement screen. Just like body composition measurements give us a baseline for your muscle mass and body fat, the Functional Movement Screen (FMS) gives us a baseline for the way you move. It’s a systematic assessment of your joints to determine your mobility, balance, core strength, and more. The FMS shows us where you are starting, exercises that will be important for you, and which membership options will be most appropriate to help you maximize your success. For example, if you attempt a bodyweight squat and your knees cave in and your back hurts, should we start you on weighted squats the next time you come in? Obviously not! On the flip side, just because these things happen when you squat doesn’t mean we ignore a dysfunctional squat either. The screen gives us corrective exercises to help improve your squat. A body that has more movement capacity is a healthier body. Clearing up the weak link(s) in someone's movement unlocks their full potential and builds a solid foundation upon which fitness can be built.

Shannon performing a goblet squat. This drill is a great place to start when learning to squat with added weight.

Hip and thoracic spine (mid back) mobility exercise

We’ve ALL been through this screen. I suffered from chronic back pain for years, completely clueless that it was due to extremely tight hips, among other dysfunctions. When I was first put through the FMS, I could run a 5k in under 18 minutes, and was just starting to rock climb at a 5.11 level (read: pretty tough climbs). I fancied myself a “good athlete”. Back injuries, poor training habits, poor movement, and thinking there was “no one and nothing that could fix my back pain” all contributed to my issues. After being screened and seeing how a few simple exercises could point out my weaknesses, I put my pride aside, started at the bottom, and re-built my foundation to become stronger than I had ever been before.

So the questions I ask YOU are: Can you put your pride aside and face your weaknesses? Can you put your fear aside, and be brave enough to change for the better? Can you put all of your expectations, all that you “know” about training, nutrition, fat loss, movement, etc. aside, and let us help you reach your goal?

Rob Badstein, Co-Owner of Results Driven Fitness, is a Certified Personal Trainer through the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM-CPT), StrongFirst Girya (SFG), Functional Movement Screening (FMS) professional, and a Functional Range Conditioning Mobility Specialist (FRCms). Finding an FMS professional and starting the right kind of training changed his life. He’s passionate about spreading his story and improving people’s lives and performance in their chosen sport through quality movement, better mobility, and strength training. He and his colleagues at Results Driven Fitness are consistently in pursuit of creating the best system possible for achieving this goal.

These three states put people in jeopardy. With obesity and orthopedic issues at an all-time high, people feeling awkward, intimidated and disconnected are the reasons they don’t start a fitness program.